A new interactive exhibit at Circus Circus Las Vegas is opening up based on the animation work of Chuck Jones. Chuck is best remembered as the creator of Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner and many other Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animations. The exhibit opens mid-October and allows visitors to learn and create animation.
A snippet from their press release:
The Chuck Jones Experience is a nearly 10,000 square-foot destination. At its entrance is the 1,000 square-foot glass-enclosed Chuck Jones Center for Creativity class room where creative art projects will be encouraged and guided by teachers from the field of animation and the arts. Heading inside, your first stop is the Chuck Jones Theatre, designed to simulate a 1930s-style movie theater. There, you’ll meet Chuck Jones via a short film, introduced by one of his characters, the Connecticut Cat.
Moving on, you’ll walk down a virtual street surrounded by many of Jones’ most memorable characters and a timeline of his extraordinary life. Next, you’ll arrive at a re-creation of Jones’ studio, where you’ll see how he worked, and discover what inspired him to create his beloved characters. From there, you’ll enter the “How Do You Measure Up?” room where 3-D characters are on display. You’ll learn more about how characters are developed and experience some of the original key drawings Jones drew during the creation of these characters.
Continuing along, you can view some of Jones’ fine art work from various periods in his life and see classic photos of him, his fellow animators and his family. This leads into “Animation Alley,” a multimedia wall where animation pieces are on display from the permanent collection of the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity and from other animation studios and collections.
Finally, you’ll arrive at the Acme Workshop, where you can create your own sound effects and voiceovers for a Chuck Jones cartoon at the Chuck Jones Experience Foley Stage. You can commemorate your experience forever at the Chuck Jones Experience Gift Shop with a variety of creative gifts and souvenirs.
I think his best work ever was/is The Grinch. Everything came together to make the book into a perfect 1/2 hour cartoon – awesome in every way.
My first non Z gallery print was purchased at a Chuck Jones Gallery in San Diego.
Interesting given Rich’s comment…it was a Dr Suess.
The story may have been by Seuss but the timing of the animated version was Jones all the way.
Back in the day when the intentions of the Creator were part of the process ….
Sounds like a great, all-inconclusive Chuck Jones exhibit!
Re Jones’s timing in the Seuss work: that is so characteristic of Jones, along with his unique development of character in his own creations and in Bugs and Daffy (with help from a wonderfully talented staff, of course).
Oops! Misspelled inclusive, so here it is again:
Sounds like a great, all-inclusive Chuck Jones exhibit!
Re Jones?s timing in the Seuss work: that is so characteristic of Jones, along with his unique development of character in his own creations and in Bugs and Daffy (with help from a wonderfully talented staff, of course).
I’m a Chuckaholic (of the Jones kind), I love all things Chuck Jones!!!
Chuck Jones is definitely one of the best animation directors ever to have graced earth.
Funny thing about the Grinch TV special: Seuss hated it. Apparently Ted Geisel had such hard time working with Jones that he took what was supposed to be Jones’ third Seuss special (The Cat in the Hat) to the DePatie-Freleng studio, where he was much happier.
By chance I saw a decent sized Jones exhibit in the airport here in phoenix of all places! I was thrilled by the unexpected surprise and was almost late to my flight because I got so lost in it all.
I liked Robert McKimson’s work on looney tunes probably more that of Jones, but the Grinch was a great confluence of talents. One of my favorites anyway.
Charles – thanks for the insight on the process … how’d the cat in the hat ala Freleng work out? I can’t quite place it in my mind right now. What was the second project?
Chuck Jones’ Grinch and Horton have become classics, while the Depatie-Freleng Dr Seuss specials are mostly forgotten. Chuck knew how to successfully adapt literary material into an animated format.
YMMV. I loved DFE’s Cat and Lorax specials as a kid. (Hawley Pratt as a director helped out big, too). Those still hold up for me. I love Jones’s Grinch special, too, for the record.